It’s not easy in this day and age of high alert to return to a life of normalcy. People are still afraid to go into certain parts of the city or to leave their homes except to go to work. But stepping away from the TV and walking out the door is all it takes to realize that New York and, more specifically, New Yorkers are resilient. Meeting the challenge are small performing arts organizations. Many of these community arts groups help to revitalize run-down and forgotten areas of the city. Operating on a shoestring budget, these artists rely heavily on audience attendance and, when eligible, grants from public and private foundations.

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs’ Community Arts Development Program (CADP) is one such program that helps these community-based groups. Federally funded through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, eligible organizations may obtain professional arts equipment or assistance to improve their facilities. This funding helps these groups to develop their programs and facilities, but it is the audiences that help them develop their art. Below, I have highlighted two downtown organizations in order to bring attention to some of what downtown New York has to offer and encourage people to attend their performances. These small groups are shining examples of how to persevere in an uncertain climate.

The Society of Educational Arts

One place to start in lower Manhattan is the Sociedad Educativa de Las Artes, Inc. / Society of the Educational Arts, Inc. (SEA), at the Los Kabayitos Puppet and Children’s Theatre located at 107 Suffolk Street. Starting its 16th year, SEA is dedicated to the empowerment and educational advancement of children and young adults. Through theater, puppetry, and outstanding programs, SEA provides an environment for young minds to examine, challenge, and create possible solutions for current educational, community, and social issues. The Society, which specializes in Latino theater for children, skillfully interweaves these issues with pure entertainment and fun. Most performances are bilingual so as to welcome a broader audience from the local community as well as folks from around the city.

It was my privilege to see La Muela del Ray Farfan (The Toothache of King Farfan) at the end of January. Upon entering the theater, an electric-red curtain reveals a storybook world decorated with vivid colors and inhabited by fantastic characters. This children’s operetta from Spain is a classic piece of literature that tells the story of the lessons learned by a stubborn king who refuses to love and respect others. Colorful, life-size puppets parade across the stage spinning a whimsical tale of a tyrannical king with a toothache. His ache begins when he forbids his only daughter her true love, and locks her away in a tower. Many doctors and scientists try to relieve the cruel monarch’s pain, but only an elderly witch can get to the root of his problem. She teaches the king that the only way to subdue his pain is through love and kindness to family and subjects. This light-hearted fable with its musical interludes was delightful to watch. Young and old were mesmerized by the small troupe of performers who skillfully maneuver the audience through a kingdom full of magical creatures.

SEA’s second season at their home base theater, Los Kabayitos Puppet and Children’s Theatre, finishes with two more fun-filled plays. La Plenopera del Empache is a musical comedy for the young-at-heart audience that compiles a good number of Puerto Rican plenas (Afro-Caribbean music from Puerto Rico) with lyrics that narrate the story of a gluttonous boy and the experience that changed his life. This bilingual production is performed on Saturdays only at 3 P.M., April 6-April 27.

The last selection of the SEA season is Las Locaventuras de Don Quijote (The Crazy Adventures of Don Quixote). Cervantes’ most famous tales are brought to life by colorful characters that go on creative adventures when they let their imaginations get the best of them. Bilingual performances are Saturdays at 3 P.M. starting May 4 and continuing until May 25.

Additional Information and Directions

For more information on these events and other SEA programs, call (212) 529-1545 or visit their website at www.sea-ny.org. Tickets are usually $8.50 for children and $10 for adults. To reach SEA by train: Take the F train to Delancy Street or the J, M, or Z to Essex Street and walk to Suffolk Street. Make a left. They are located on the 2nd floor of 107 Suffolk Street between Rivington Street and Delancy Street.

H.T. Dance Company

For those who love dance, check out the H.T. Dance Company, performing in different venues around Manhattan and the United States. Founded in 1979 by H.T. Chen, the company has evolved into the largest Asian American dance institution in the country. All of H.T. Dance Company’s programs and activities reflect its ongoing mission to promote contemporary dance and Asian American expression through artistic creation, arts education, and presentation. This organization realizes its mission via its three components: Chen & Dancers, Arts Gate Center, and The Mulberry Street Theater.

Chen & Dancers is a highly acclaimed professional modern dance company that conducts numerous educational and outreach activities throughout New York City as well as nationwide. Each year the company presents 24 matinee performances for New York City schools at the Mulberry Street Theater. They will finish their season with a world premiere by H.T. Chen (as yet untitled) and the revival of Meditations of a Drunken Peacock, a lighthearted piece inspired by an 11th-century Chinese poet who wants to drink with the moon and the flowers.

Performances run Thursdays-Sundays, May 9-12 and May 16-19, and start at 8:00 P.M. For ticket information, call (212) 349-0126 or visit their website at www.htchendance.org.

The Mulberry Street Theater

The Mulberry Street Theater is a professional venue for emerging artists to showcase modern dance, and is the only professional dance space in Chinatown. Starting its 14th season, the theater provides production services to over 100 independent artists and companies. MST’s spring season continues:

April

Newsteps, an emerging choreographers series featuring new works by choreographers Nicole Berger, Kelly Hayes, Sun Ho Kim, Stephanie Lazzara, Toni Melaas/Lily Gene Baldwin, and Lydia Taranco. Performances are Thursday-Friday, April 25-27 at 8:00 P.M.

May

Chen & Dancers will once again present its New York season at the Mulberry Street Theater. A world premiere by H.T. Chen performed to a commissioned score by Bradley Kaus will be featured. A revival of Meditations of a Drunken Peacock will also be performed. Performances are Thursday-Sunday, May 9-12 and May 16-19 at 8:00 P.M.

June

Ear to the Ground/Moving Word are newly commissioned works by Kristin Jackson and Krithika Rajagopalan. Performances are Thursday-Saturday, June 6-8 at 8 P.M.

Out of Space Series is a program of Danspace Project. Tuesday and Wednesday, June 18 and 19.

Arts Gate Center Recitals

Arts Gate Center is a year round community arts school, with pre-professional classes in dance, music, and martial arts for children and adults. Over 200 students attend classes taught by professional instructors each week.

Additional Information and Directions

For more information on these events and other programs, call (212) 349-0126. To reach the Mulberry Street Theater and Arts Gate Center, located at 70 Mulberry Street, take the N train to Canal Street, walk east to Mulberry, then south to Bayard. They are on the corner of Mulberry and Bayard.

I hope this information spurs you to take a new look or a second look at the cultural and artistic richness that is downtown New York City. See you there!

This map has been developed with the aim of reviving activity at lower Manhattan cultural institutions.

The project is a collaborative effort by architects, designers, artists, preservationists, and planners who constitute the New York New Visions Cultural and Historic Resources Committee, which was established in response to the destruction of the World Trade Center. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, which had offices and studios in the World Trade Center complex, supported and sponsored this map.

The DowntownNow map shows public plazas, landmarked historic districts, and self-guided walking-tour routes. It includes 119 historic buildings, 23 performing arts venues, 38 galleries, 28 places of worship, and 29 schools among the museums, galleries, public art installations, parks and contemporary buildings of note, and other attractions in the 100 square blocks of lower Manhattan. The map also shows the area around "Ground Zero," with dotted lines outlining what used to be the buildings that made up the World Trade Center complex.

To obtain a copy of the map, please contact the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council at (212) 219-9401. Also, copies can be picked up at the South Street Seaport Museum, where tickets to "Ground Zero" are distributed. Several other choices include coming to DCA’s offices at 330 West 42nd Street, 14th floor, or contacting or visiting a local Council Member’s office or one of the Borough Presidents’ offices, as they each received several dozen maps.

We hope the map will aid individuals interested in visiting and supporting the vibrant cultural life in lower Manhattan.

Meet Kate D. Levin, DCA’s New Commissioner

With interests that include the works of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, civic pageantry, modern drama, public art, 20th-century collaboration in the performing and visual arts, and government arts policy in the US, Kate D. Levin is now ready and willing to take on the arts of New York City, its politics, its policies, and its people.

Before stepping into her new role, Commissioner Levin served as an Assistant Professor of English and Theatre at the City College of New York/CUNY. While at CCNY, she taught courses in English Renaissance Literature, including the plays of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as courses in theater history and play analysis. She also directed an annual faculty production. In addition, Commissioner Levin was the Associate Director of the Simon H. Rifkind Center for the Humanities and the Arts at CCNY. Some of her roles at the center included planning and coordinating lectures and conferences, and initiating and developing partnerships with cultural institutions and the New York City public school system.

Also under her belt is a series of productions that she directed, including The Law Against Lovers by William Davenant, Gallathea by John Lyly, and Epicoene by Ben Jonson. Other academic accomplishments include many professional papers and presentations and published articles and reviews. Currently, she is writing a book entitled Genre Trouble: The Masque and English Renaissance Drama.

Apart from her work in academia, Kate D. Levin has worked for a number of arts and cultural organizations, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Also of note, she served as the Executive Assistant to the mayor’s Chief of Staff during the Koch Administration, along with being a Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, where she helped with organizational restructuring as well as assessing budgetary requests and producing DCA’s annual report.

As you can see, Commissioner Levin has a love for the arts, and it is this passion that will serve her and the people of the City of New York well in the years to come. The staff at DCA welcomes her creative spirit and looks forward to her leadership and guidance.

The information contained in the above article is current as of its April 2002 publication date. Please be advised that this information may be out of date.